urge parliamentary scrutiny of the state within a state of the Khakis, especially the dreaded spy agency (DGFI). The interference of the Khakis into state politics will once again jeopardize institutionalization of elective democracy, good governance and secularism. The rogues fear social justice activists, critics, politicians and journalists too - Joy Manush!

Monday, July 29, 2013

Bangladesh: An Emerging Threat

SANCHITA BHATTACHARYA

On June 27, 2013, two displaced persons (DPs)
were killed and another six were wounded when Security Forces (SFs) fired to
disperse a crowd that had gathered at a military base in Kyein Ni Pyin, a camp
for DPs in the Pauktaw area of Myanmar's
RakhineState.

Again, on June 30, 2013, three persons were
injured as rioters torched two houses in the coastal town of Thandwe
in RakhineState, during clashes between Buddhists
and Rohingya Muslims.

Through 2012, Myanmar
had witnessed clashes between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in RakhineState, resulting in about 200 deaths and
displacement of some 22,000 people.

These clashes and the resultant sectarian divide
in Myanmar seems to have
provided an opportunity to Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI, Pakistan's external intelligence agency)-backed
Islamist formations to consolidate their hold in Bangladesh
making the Bangladesh-Myanmar Border
their operational base.

Indeed, according to a July 21, 2013, report, India's
external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), has confirmed
that the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and its front,
Jama'at-ud-Dawa (JuD) are working in tandem to extend their footprints along
the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. While the JuD leader Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is
personally leading the Myanmar
campaign, espousing the cause of Rohingyas from various public platforms in Pakistan, his
subordinates have been planning and undertaking visits to the
Bangladesh-Myanmar border region. Intelligence sources indicate that the
Pakistan-sourced support to the Rohingya's is conditional on radicalized
Rohingyas undertaking operations against India as well.

In mid-2012, the JuD established a new forum, Difa-e-Musalman
Arakan-Burma (Defence of
Muslims in Arakan - Myanmar)
in order to mobilise supporters for a campaign against the ruling military
junta of Myanmar.
The JuD deputed a two-member team comprising JuD 'spokesperson' Nadeem Awari
and a member of the Jama'at's 'publication wing', Shahid Mehmood Rehmatullah,
on August 10, 2012, for the task of forging links with senior representatives
of Islamic institutions in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

In addition, Bangladesh agencies tracking one
Shafiul Alam, a dual Pakistani-Nepalese passport holder, who travels frequently
from Pakistan to Bangladesh, recently found that he and one Abdul Karim alias Mohammed
Nur Alam, a Nepal-based Rohingya operative linked to hawala (illegal
money transactions) and fake currency trafficking networks, had been trying to
set up training camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border for Rohingya
extremists, in consultation with the LeT 'commander' Ustad Abdul Hamid.

Assessing the Lashkar initiative, on February
27, 2013, Home Minister of Bangladesh Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir noted,
"Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) is active in Bangladesh and
law enforcement agencies tracked down their network and kept them under sharp
security vigil. It is the moral and legal obligation of the Government to
uproot them totally."

Moreover, it has also been reported that other
terror outfits such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Jama'atul
Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the latter with
known links to Pakistan-based terrorist formations, are also trying to exploit
the issue of the Rohingyas' 'plight' in Myanmar. In this effort, they are
allying with NGOs led by Rohingyas, including the Rohingya Solidarity
Organisation, to establish new bases in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi security
agencies are examining whether Jammat-ul-Arakan, a new outfit comprising
elements of JMB and extremist-minded Rohingya activists, is running militant
camps in the Bandarban District along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

Meanwhile, links between Pakistani extremist
formations and Rohingyas have also been uncovered by Bangladeshi security
agencies. Bangladesh Police traced the funds in the bank account of one Maulana
Mohammad Yunus, arrested in August 2012 from a madrasa (Islamic
Seminary) in the Rau sub-district
of Cox's Bazaar District,
to Maulana Shabir Ali Ahmed, a Karachi-based, JeM-linked Bangladeshi national
of Rohingya origin. Another madrasa operator, Abdur Rehman alias Imran alias Mustafa
of Teknaf in Cox's Bazaar is suspected to have coordinated the arrival of
Pakistan-trained Myanmarese mujahideen (holy warriors) at
various locations of Cox's Bazaar at the end of 2012.

The expanding ISI footprint in the Rohingya belt
of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) was also exposed following the arrest of
one Noor-ul-Amin from the Idgah madarasa in Cox's Bazaar, on
September 11, 2012. Amin had reportedly served as a militant 'talent spotter'
and a recruiter of Rohingya cadres in the past. Confirming his association with
the ISI during his interrogation, Amin disclosed that the ISI was involved in
gun-running activity in the Rohingya refugee belt in CHT. According to
estimates, there are about 26,000 documented refugees living in two camps in
Cox's Bazar District in CHT, close to the Myanmar border. Bangladesh Minister for Foreign Affairs Dipu
Moni stated that 300,000 to 500,000 Myanmar
refugees had entered Bangladesh
illegally. ISI agents are also known to have close connections with the drug cartels in South-east Asia.

Evidently, the sectarian clashes in Myanmar have significant potential to impact
adversely on the security situation in Bangladesh,
India, and Myanmar. An
unnamed senior Indian official observed, "Economic and social hardships
faced by Rohingya refugees apart, the involvement of the minority group in arms
smuggling, narcotics, safe sanctuaries for terror elements, including setting
up of training camps, is going to be a major counter-terrorism challenge in the
regional context." Available intelligence inputs indicate that extremist
activities of Rohingya Muslims were being funded mainly by sources in Saudi Arabia.
The militant cadres among the Rohingyas were being trained by Pakistan-based
terror groups and the weapons were being procured from Thailand.

At the official level, India and Myanmar have
agreed to cooperate to prevent cross border movement of armed groups, share
information on seizure of arms and check arms smuggling/drug trafficking. The
agreement was reached during the (Joint Working Group) Meeting between Myanmar and India
held at Bagan in Myanmar
on June 19-20, 2013.

The cycle of violence in the border areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar has increased security
vulnerabilities in the region. Accordingly, on May 18-19, 2013, a new sector
and two battalions (Number 50 and 51) of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were set
up to ensure better border management along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border,
especially in Cox's Bazar and Khagrachhari Districts. Another BGB sector has
also been established in Bandarban District.

As the ISI and its terrorist proxies step in to
fish in troubled waters, it is now imperative that Bangladesh, India and
Myanmar act, at once and in concert, to ensure that a greater sagacity attends
Myanmar's policies towards the Rohingyas, and to destroy the emerging criminal
and terrorist networks that seek to exploit the opportunities of the present
disorders to create greater violence and instability in the region.